Online retail investing platform Robinhood has released its long awaited crypto wallet for beta testing which will finally enable users to withdraw crypto from the platform.
The first 1,000 users that signed up to the waitlist for ‘Wallets’ are eligible to take part in beta testing. Wallets testers will be able to withdraw crypto valued up to $2,999 over a maximum of 10 total transactions daily.
Robinhood is a financial services platform backed by Citadel Securities that offers stock and crypto trading. Robinhood’s crypto purchaser users have awaited the release of Wallets since mid 2021 when the waitlist was first created. The last public count of sign-ups to the waitlist revealed by Brown stood at 1.6 million in November, or about 7% of its total user base.
While the current limit of testers is capped at 1,000, the company plans to raise the cap to 10,000 by March. A Jan. 20 announcement from Robinhood stated that:
“Beta testers will help us test core functionality and provide critical feedback to inform the final version of the product.”
Wallets testers will be required to perform know-your-customer (KYC) identification if they are not existing Robinhood users and use a two-factor authentication app.
Robinhood’s Crypto COO Christine Brown tweeted today that while the Beta program is ongoing, the company will work “to finalize the send and receive flows and add delightful QR scanning experiences, improved transaction history, and block explorer support.”
Over the duration of the Beta program, we will be working to finalize the send and receive flows and add delightful QR scanning experiences, improved transaction history, and block explorer support so you can see your transactions on-chain— and more!https://t.co/db5afxwQWx
— Christine (Hall) Brown (@christine_hall) January 20, 2022
Up until the release of Wallets, any crypto bought on the platform could not be withdrawn nor stored privately, making it essentially a crypto transaction in name only.
Now however, Robinhood’s growing crypto division is beginning to resemble a full-fledged crypto exchange that the company says will “fully connect Robinhood crypto holders to the greater blockchain ecosystem for the very first time.”
Related: Robinhood hits new low as FTX.US and Bitstamp USA move into stocks
Many of its traders favor Dogecoin (DOGE) as their coin of choice. DOGE accounted for 41% of Robinhood’s total revenue in Q2 2021 and 19% in Q3. There are also rumors that the company will list Shiba Inu (SHIB) since Robinhood co-founder Vlad Kardapoltsev recently commented on the rising number of SHIB token holders.
Brown ha stated that listing SHIB would depend on regulatory feasibility.
Robinhood (HOOD) share price has fallen to an all-time low of $13.50 in after hours trading.
